Books: The Wrong Stars By Tim Pratt (2017)

A ragtag crew of humans and posthumans discover alien technology that could change the fate of humanity... or awaken an ancient evil and destroy all life in the galaxy. The shady crew of the White Raven run freight and salvage at the fringes of our solar system. They discover the wreck of a centuries-old exploration vessel floating light years away from its intended destination and revive its sole occupant, who wakes with news of First Alien Contact. When the crew breaks it to her that humanity has alien allies already, she reveals that these are very different extra-terrestrials... and the gifts they bestowed on her could kill all humanity, or take it out to the most distant stars.

Tim Pratt’s The Wrong Stars plot is not original, but that does not mean it’s not good. For modern readers of space opera, this tales settles somewhere between James S. A. Corey’s The Expanse series –just without all the political shenanigans- and John Scalzi’s cynical and snarky Old Man War series. It has pirates, weird aliens, cyborgs, alien conspiracies and a colorful cast of misfits that live on the razors edge between doing what’s right.

While Corey’s The Expanse series relies on tech that is somewhat scientifically possible, The Wrong Stars sort of ignores most of the hard science of space travel, and gives you a fun adventure that often reminded me more of Star Trek, Doctor Who, and even Blake’s 7 (except without the moral ambiguity). Still, the weapons and tech created for this new series is cool, such as camouflage stealth techniques, those wormhole generators, and modifiable gravity. But like I said, some of the science behind these things is fairly questionable, so if you’re looking for some hard science fiction in this book, you’re not going to find it as interesting as, say, The Expanse does in spades.

The only drawback has to be the romance aspect, which Pratt tries to make believable and convincing, but comes off as not very credible (but I applaud him for the great diversity of his characters). As I said, it's a fun space opera, though not highly original. But I'll still be waiting for the next book in the series, so there is that.